Quiet has finally descended on the system of Simyr. After winning a three-way preparation battle, Princess Duval faced daunting expansion triggers of 6:1 and decided not to push hard, failing the expansion by a wide margin. Nearby, Zemina Torval expanded to the system of Dechengh, which removes 59CC from the Simyr bubble, reducing much of the allure of the previously hard-fought region. At the time of writing, the only power preparing Simyr is Winters with a cursory 3,000 merits. A local barkeep rearranging mugs in his suddenly empty pub said “Those flyboys were a rough sort, but I almost miss them now they’re gone. Still, it’ll give us a chance to clean up and fix all the furniture that got broken.”

Torval also successfully expanded to HR 2883 despite a huge fight in which a total of 750,000 merits were earned by both sides. This is known as a “weaponised expansion”, as it costs Torval 35CC to hold the system, but also removes 38CC from adjacent Winters systems. Additionally, Torval prepared LHS 2265 and Kappa, and both expansions are also heavily weaponised against Winters. At the time of writing, Kappa appears to be their main push and the source of most conflict, with Imperial forces leading by 37,000 merits. Meanwhile Kappa seems to be abandoned, allowing the opposition free rein to pull out a lead of 27,000 merits.

Elsewhere, Felicia Winters is attempting to expand into Nunuri. With excellent triggers giving a nearly 5:2 advantage they have pulled out a solid lead of 78,000 merits despite there only being a medium pad in the system to haul to.

As reported elsewhere, Sirius Corporation has been in negotiations with various factions in its space, and it appears one result is that Sirius prepared and then easily expanded to the system of Holvandalla. This costs them 34CC per cycle, and while a public statement has yet to be made, inside reports say the expansion was voluntary and not the result of sabotage. We hope to have more on this story later.

Preparations so far are slow. Aisling Duval and Yuri Grom see significant Fifth Column sabotage action and will have to either respond with counter-preparations or fully consolidate later in the cycle. All other powers have no significant preparations so far, though we expect some to move later in the cycle.